The staff has picked for October - thanks for your suggestions. Please have a look at this page for the current list. You can also check out our wiki page for a plain vanilla list that contains all the staff picks for this year.

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is a good example for Gothic literature, a bit less known than Bram Stoker maybe, but his stories are similar in creepiness and writing style. I found a few in our database, here is maybe a good example:

Another good writer is Richard Marsh, and there is actually one novel I contributed to. The Joss. It was written from the perspective of 4 people, two men and two women, so 4 LV readers took those chapters to stay in character. It was my first foray into prose chapters, after only doing short poems Quite a revelation for me, back then. Unfortunately my microphone was not a good one yet, so maybe this is not a good example to tout...but Marsh also wrote other novels, if you like to present another one.

Recently I DPLed a Spanish short story collection by Leopoldo Lugones. The stories all have a creepy element, but embedded and explained in a sort of scientific explanation (like for example, a man invents a machine which creates sounds that would melt matter, so when he tries it on himself, his brain melts and he is found dead after some days ) That sort of thing.

ToddHW wrote:What wonderful suggestions. And the last one makes me wish I knew Spanish or had one of those translating fish things...

the Babel Fish ? I'm not sure I would want to put that in my ear to be honest.

I was surprised by how much I understood from those Spanish stories, because believe it or not, I don't speak Spanish. But since the language is so similar to other languages I speak, and Victor (the reader) is really narrating quite expressively and slowly enough to follow, it was a real treat to get to know about this writer. That's why it came to my mind now when I read about the topic.

The staff has picked for November - thanks for your suggestions. Please have a look at this page for the current list. You can also check out our wiki page for a plain vanilla list that contains all the staff picks for this year.

3. In a complete different vein, If you wish I could search some poetry in French from one of the 9 compilation de poèmes volumes that Ezwa coordinates and reads. There must be several about spirituality.

The staff has picked for December - thanks for your suggestions. Please have a look at this page for the current list. You can also check out our wiki page for a plain vanilla list that contains all the staff picks for this year.

A bit later than usual, but finally, the staff has picked for January.
Please have a look at this page for the current list. You can also check out our wiki page for a plain vanilla list that contains all the staff picks for this year - once I have actually made and updated that page... (sorry, very busy here...)

The theme for next month will be:

Winter

I am happy about all suggestions concerning winter/cold/snow/ice/freezing/...
Especially welcome are suggestions of plays and poetry.

Since I sometimes seem to have problems attracting suggestions and/or finding good books myself, here are a few guidelines that I use to choose the staff picks each month:

- Any language goes!
I have started to add suggestions in any language, not just English. It is hard for me to find relevant entries in our catalog, however, so if you know of a book that fits the current staff pick theme, please post your suggestion!

- However, I prefer not to use single recordings (poems, stories, essays) in collections. The reason for this is that they are difficult to link to (I have to link to the whole project instead of the one recording), and may be hard to find for ones looking at the staff picks. I also prefer not to use weekly poetry projects.

Edit: It also helps staff picking tremendously if there's a good summary on our catalog page